If you look at lists of films to watch for people who want to quit their jobs I guarantee Office Space will be on almost every list. It’s the late 90’s comedy classic about men rebelling against a mindless corporate career existence.

In many ways, when you begin watching, this film feels like it has all the hallmarks of a financial independence anthem. There is that cold inefficiency of the corporate world, in which characters feel powerless and under constant scrutiny from their bosses. There is the empty small talk as well as the barrage of weekday related quips as the main character has his feelings of frustration at not being heard reduced to “a case of the Mondays”. Above all there is the message that even if you think that turning up on time, doing your job and going along with all the banalities of corporate life, your company doesn’t value you as an individual at all and would easily replace you.

As I watched this film it occurred to me that financial independence was the solution to each of these problems. It’s hard to feel powerless, for example, if you can walk away from your job at any time. Your unlikely to measure out you time in relation to where the weekend falls, waiting for your two days of freedom if you’re already financially free to only work when and where you want to. You’ll feel less inclined to measure your value by how much your employer needs you if you don’t need them.

At this point in the film, the main characters hatch out a plan to steal from the big corporation and ultimately achieve financial independence.

**Spoilers below**

Once the protagonist (Ron Livingston) has decided he doesn’t care about his job anymore and refuses to say what is expected of him and go along with all the social ‘niceties’ of office life, he finds that rather than be criticised for his attitude he is promoted for it. His honesty about his lack of motivation is mistaken for potential and his refusal conform to corporate expectations (like acting subservient to his boss or dressing in an ‘office appropriate’ way) are interpreted as dynamic and creative. He is quickly labeled as “leadership material”. This makes me wonder how many people as stuck in stagnant career paths, under-appreciated by their employer because they are worried that by not ‘playing the game’ could lead to disciplinary action rather than positive recognition. Financial independence is the only way to find out.

Though this film is a work of fiction and comedy, and certainly not meant to be taken too seriously, there are documented examples of this happening amongst FIRE bloggers. Mad Fientist has written and spoken on podcasts about several occasions where he intended to quit his job but was instead negotiated into a role which put his needs first, giving him pay increases and allowing him to work remotely so that he could travel internationally.

Despite this film seeming to herald a lot of the ideas and values that people aiming for financial independence share, I found the ending of this film unsatisfying.

Ultimately the characters regret their unlawful behavior (which is fair) but the moral of the story isn’t that we should all find financial independence and quit our jobs, but rather that we should be more open to quitting jobs we don’t like and finding new ones. Of the four main characters, two move to almost identical jobs in another company, the main character finds working for an outdoor construction crew makes him happier than working in a white-collar job ever did, and Jenifer Anniston’s waitress character moves literally to the restaurant next door which has a uniform she prefers.  

While this presents a seemingly happy ending for the characters, I can’t help but feel let down that with the exception of one character changing careers, all of the characters are very much back where they started by the end of the film.

The one exception is Stephen Root’s character, Milton. Milton has been the underdog for the whole film, mistreated and exploited. He is a hilarious character and provides some of the best comic relief. Throughout the film Milton is a minor character who constantly tells people that the next act of mistreatment will be the last straw and he will quit, but of course it never is and he never does. Milton, through a stroke of luck, ends up with the stolen money and in the final scene we see him on a tropical beach sipping cocktails from coconuts. Though the irony at the end is that he still seems dissatisfied and is complaining about the cocktails as the final movie scene fades out.

The final scene of the movie is a trope that many people lean on when I tell them about my plans for early retirement – they tend to split into two factions. The “what would you do if retired – I’d get bored without work” faction, who have always struck me as lacking in imagination, and the “I’d love to retire early, I’d spend all day on a beach drinking mai tai’s!” camp who are only slightly more imaginative. In both cases they are missing the point – retiring early isn’t about doing nothing, it’s about doing whatever you want. When people imagine relaxing on a beach sipping rum from a coconut, they are imagining a holiday, not financial freedom. Spending time on the beach doing nothing is a great reprieve from work when you know you have to go back to the office in a week or two, but it isn’t a long-term plan. Maybe the first “I’d get bored” camp have a more realistic idea; doing nothing can be boring. But retirement doesn’t have to be doing nothing, in fact, it allows us to look for purpose in our lives and consider how we can find meaning and value in our time outside of employment. Overall, I don’t judge either group too harshly (although it has been frustrating to hear these two sentiments parroted back to me whenever I mention retiring before the age of 40), and I’ve been guilty of thinking along the same lines prior to becoming part of the FIRE movement and realizing that financial independence could be a genuine reality.

The ending of Office Space reminded me that for the vast majority of us, we’ve been raised with the expectation that we will go to school, graduate, get a job which pays us in relation to our level of education, live a lifestyle in line with our income and retire at 65. Coming around to the idea that we don’t need to follow this very linear path is something that’s taken me some time. While Office Space is a great, light-hearted film for people who are sick of their jobs, for me it falls just shy of getting to the point. I enjoyed the film and would recommend it, but with the caveat that while the ending wraps up the story very neatly, for a FI’er, it’s going to fall short.

Office Space is a fun comedy and will appeal to those on the financial independent trail, especially if you’ve suffered from an experience working for a big corporation or a boss with zero interest in your personal well-being, but in the end, it’s back to work for all of the main characters.